Alerting an individual in proximity to a border

ABSTRACT

A method in which a user&#39;s location with respect to a border is received and if the user is likely to cross the border, a responsive action may be taken automatically and by machine logic. Further, items in the user&#39;s possession may be received along with a data set indicating that an item in a first entity is not permitted in a second entity. If it is determined that the user is likely to cross the border with the not permitted item, a notification may be sent to a device of the user that the item is not permitted in the second entity.

BACKGROUND

Geographic tracking of individuals (on foot or in vehicles) is known.For example, some people track their walks or runs using their smartphones and the built in GPS (Global Positioning System) capability thatsmart phones typically have. As another example, GPS trackers forcommercial and personal vehicles are well known and currently deployedon a massive scale.

It is known that items permitted in one geographic location may not bepermitted in others. For example, food and drink may be forbidden in acomputer lab at a university. As a larger scale example, it is generallynot allowed to bring a pet elephant from the state of Nevada into thestate of California. In this application, these geographic zones (forexample, computer lab room, state, etc.) where different strictures onpossessing various types of goods are referred to as “geographicentities,” or, more simply, “entities.” In this document, “item type”refers to a category of item that is the subject of an entity'sstricture on possessions; for example, food, drink and elephants are the“item types” in the above examples. A specific hamburger that a studenthas purchased at the university cafeteria would be an “item”corresponding to the “item type” of food.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The present exemplary embodiments pertain to alerting one or moreindividuals who may be approaching an entity or carrying items notpermitted in an entity to which the individuals may be traveling. Inparticular, the individuals' location with respect to the border withthe entity is monitored and the individuals are alerted when it appearslikely they will be crossing into the entity with the items notpermitted by the entity.

Individuals may approach a border which for a variety of reasons theindividuals may have no intention to cross. In addition, many entitiesmay have restrictions on carrying items across a border. Theserestrictions may apply even when declaring the items. Individuals arefrequently not aware that they may be about to cross a border orcarrying items that may violate the restrictions in the entities. Otherrestrictions may apply with respect to bringing certain items into abusiness or public space.

The individuals, not being aware of the border or the restrictions, mayend up crossing the border or violating these restrictions causing theindividuals inconvenience or loss of the items not permitted in theentity.

The various advantages and purposes of the exemplary embodiments asdescribed above and hereafter are achieved by providing, according to anaspect of the exemplary embodiments, a method comprising: receiving apossessions data set including information indicating that a user is inpossession of a first item having a first item type in a first entity;receiving a data set including information that items of the first itemtype are considered as not permitted in a second entity; receiving anindication that the user is likely to cross a boundary between the firstentity and the second entity; and responsive to the indication that theuser is likely to cross the boundary, sending, automatically and bymachine logic, a notification to a device of the user over acommunication network with the notification including information, inhuman understandable form and format, that the item type of the firstitem is considered as not permitted in the second entity.

According to another aspect of the exemplary embodiments, there isprovided a method comprising: receiving a boundaries data set includingdata indicative of the geographic locations of boundaries separating aplurality of different entities; receiving a user location data setincluding data indicative of a current geographic location of a user;determining, automatically and by machine logic that the user is likelyto cross a boundary between a first entity, of the plurality ofentities, and a second entity, of the plurality of entities, based atleast in part upon proximity between the current geographic location ofthe user and a location of a boundary between the first entity and thesecond entity indicated in the boundaries data set; and responsive tothe determination that the user is likely to cross the boundary, taking,automatically and by machine logic, a responsive action.

According to a further aspect of the exemplary embodiments, there isprovided a method comprising: receiving a boundaries data set includingdata indicative of the geographic locations of boundaries separating aplurality of entities; receiving a user location data set including dataindicative of geographic locations of a user as the user moves overtime; determining, by machine logic, that the user is likely to cross aboundary between a first entity, of the plurality of entities, and asecond entity, of the plurality of entities, based at least in part uponthe boundaries data set and the user location data set; and responsiveto the determination that the user is likely to cross the boundary,taking, automatically and by machine logic, a responsive action.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The features of the exemplary embodiments believed to be novel and theelements characteristic of the exemplary embodiments are set forth withparticularity in the appended claims. The Figures are for illustrationpurposes only and are not drawn to scale. The exemplary embodiments,both as to organization and method of operation, may best be understoodby reference to the detailed description which follows taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a user who may be approaching a border between afirst entity and a second entity.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system for implementing the exemplary embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates the process of making the laws, rules and policiesdatabase, the borders database and the items not permitted by entitydatabase.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method for implementing the exemplary embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to the Figures in more detail, and particularly referring toFIG. 1, there is illustrated a user 10 who may be approaching a border12 between a first entity 14 and a second entity 16.

It would be useful to know when the user 10 is likely to cross theborder 12 so that a relevant response may be sent to the user 10. Forexample, the user 10 may be likely to cross a country border so that itmay be useful to notify the user 10 that the country border is inproximity so that the user 10 can make sure to have a passport in theuser's possession. A proximity zone 18 may be provided to gauge when theuser 10 is likely to cross the border 12.

In addition, the user 10 may have an item in the user's possession thatmay be permitted in the first entity 14 and not permitted in the secondentity 16. In this situation, it would be useful to notify the user 10that the user 10 is about to cross the border 12 so that the user 10 isaware that the item in the user's possession is not permitted in thesecond entity 16.

As another example, a user may have purchased a peanut butter sandwichand not be aware that the user is approaching a peanut free zone in aschool. The user's profile may be set to alert him of school safetyzones. As the user approaches the border, i.e., the school safety zone,the user may be alerted of the rule and does not bring the sandwich toan area that could introduce health risks to individuals who may havepeanut allergies.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is illustrated a system 20 forimplementing the exemplary embodiments. The system 20 may include afirst computing device 22 which may receive information from a laws,rules and policies database 24 and a borders database 26.

From the laws, rules and policies database 24 and the borders database26, items not permitted by entity database 28 may be derived.

In one exemplary embodiment, the laws, rules and policies database 24,the borders database 26 and the items not permitted by entity database28 may be pre-existing. In another exemplary embodiment, it may bepreferred to build these databases.

Referring now to FIG. 3, there is illustrated the process of making thelaws, rules and policies database 24, the borders database 26 and theitems not permitted by entity database 28 in the preferred exemplaryembodiment.

For purposes of the exemplary embodiments, an entity may be agovernmental body, a business organization, a religious body ororganization, a person or any body or organization that is distinct,independent or self-contained.

The laws, rules and policies database 24 may be made by analyzing laws,rules and policies, box 30. The laws may be laws enacted by a legalentity's legislative body. Rules may be regulations promulgated by agovernment body to fulfill the purpose of the laws. Policies may bestatements promulgated by a government entity regarding the workings ofthe government entity. Governmental policies may not have the force oflaws or regulations. Policies may also be statements promulgated by abusiness entity regarding the workings of the business entity and mayinclude requirements that may apply to users interfacing with thebusiness entity. After analyzing the laws, rules and policies, a processmay build the laws, rules and policies into a database, box 32,resulting in the laws, rules, policies database, box 24.

The borders database 26 may be made by analyzing borders betweenentities, box 34. These borders may be physical, political, legal orlogical. The physical border may be a physical embodiment that separatestwo entities. For example, a physical border may be a road, river orhill. The political border is a border that a government entity may havemade. Such a political border may be, for example, a border between twotowns, villages, counties, states or countries. The legal border may bea border dividing entities where behaviors or items on one side of theborder are permitted and behaviors or items on the other side of theborder are not permitted. The legal border may include, for example, anentity where individuals may drive at 17 years of age whereasindividuals must be 18 to drive in a second entity. The logical bordermay be a border that has been defined to limit or constrain certainactivities or items. For example, a logical border may include acircumscribed area on a ship or the area within a shopping center orstore where certain items may be permitted or not permitted.

It should be understood that these borders are not mutually exclusive.For example, a physical border may also be a political or legal border.In other examples, a political border may also be a legal or physicalborder and a legal border may be a logical border.

After analyzing the borders, a process may build the borders into adatabase, box 36, resulting in the borders database, box 26.

The laws, rules and policies database 24 and the borders database 26 maybe queried to build the items not permitted by entity database, box 28.The items not permitted by entity database 28 is a compilation of itemsthat may be not permitted in an entity.

The laws, rules, policies database 24, borders database 26 and notpermitted items by entity database 28 may be contained within computingdevice 22 or may be separate from computing device 22 but accessible bycomputing device 22 over a communication link such as by WiFi, cellular,satellite or internet.

The not permitted items by entity database 28 may be input to computingdevice 42. Computing device 42 may also have access to the laws, rules,policies database 24 and the borders database 26, either directly orthrough computing device 22. It should be understood that computingdevice 22 and computing device 42 may be the same or different computingdevices.

A user may have an application 54 on the user's electronic device 44,shown for example as a smartphone in FIG. 2, but could be otherelectronic devices such as a laptop, tablet or wireless-enabled wearabletechnology such as an activity tracker. The application 54 maycommunicate with system 20. It may be required that the electronicdevice 44 register with the system 20 to communicate with the system 20.In one exemplary embodiment, the electronic device 44 may automaticallyregister with the system 20 when the application 54 is loaded on theelectronic device 44.

It is within the scope of the exemplary embodiments to have the system20 and application 54 all on the user's electronic device 44. It isfurther within the scope of the exemplary embodiments to split up thefunctions of the system 20 and application 54 into three or moreelectronic devices having communication capabilities such as computingdevice 22 being a remote electronic device, computing device 28 being onone of the user's electronic devices 44 and the application 54 being onanother one of the user's electronic devices 44. It is also within thescope of the exemplary embodiments to have system 20 being remote andapplication 54 being on one or more of the user's electronic devices 44(e.g., a smartphone and an activity tracker).

The current geographic location 46 of the electronic device 44 may beobtained from the GPS capability embedded in the electronic device 44and provided to computing device 42 as an input by the application 54. Auser's planned destination 48 may also be obtained from the user'selectronic device 44. The application 54 on the electronic device 44 mayseek planned destination information from the user's calendar, email andfiles and provide the planned destination information to the computingdevice 42. It is also within the scope of the exemplary embodiments forthe user to manually input to the application 54 the user's currentlocation 46 and/or the user's planned destination 48.

Knowing the user's current location 46 and the user's planneddestination 48, the computing device 42 may determine if the user islikely to cross a border. If the computing device 42 determines that theuser is likely to cross a border, the computing device 42 may provide aresponsive action 52 to the application 54. The responsive action 52 maybe a visual, auditory or haptic responsive. One responsive action 52,for example, may be a message 56 “Warning! You are near a border!”.

Possessions data 50 may also be provided to the computing device 42through application 54. Possessions data 50 may be information about theitems that the user may be carrying. Possessions data 50 may be, forexample, digital data that the user owns or associates with. Digitaldata may include, for example, credit card data, calendars, locationdata from GPS, digital images captured by the user's cameras. Alsoincluded may be digitized audio. From this digital data, conclusions maybe drawn by application 54, or by application 54 in cooperation withsystem 20, as to items the user may be carrying. For example, creditcard data may be used to find items that the user recently purchased.The user may also manually enter possessions that the user is carrying.

In another exemplary embodiment, the user may opt in to sources of datathat the user has no control over such as digital images fromsurveillance cameras and GPS data.

Knowing the user's possession data 50, the user's current location 46and the user's planned destination 48, the computing device 42 maydetermine if the user is likely to cross a border and if the user iscarrying certain items. If the computing device 42 determines that theuser is likely to cross a border, the computing device 42 may comparethe user's possessions data 50 to items in the not permitted items byentity database 28. If the user is carrying items not permitted in theentity over the border, the computing device 42 may provide a responsiveaction 52 to the application 54. The responsive action 52 may be avisual, auditory or haptic responsive. One responsive action 52, forexample, may be a message 58 “Warning! Not permitted item!”.

Referring now to FIG. 4, there is illustrated a method for implementingthe exemplary embodiments.

Initially, the user may have to register the user's electronic device44, box 60, or allow it to be detected, box 62. Loading the application54 may allow automatic registration of the user's electronic device 44by system 20.

The current location of the user, more accurately the current locationof the user's electronic device 44, may be identified, box 64, throughGPS, for example. The user may also voluntarily provide the location ofthe user's electronic device 44.

By sorting through the digital data such as calendars, credit cardreceipts and email on the electronic device 44, a planned destination ofthe user may be identified, box 66.

Items carried by the user may be detected, box 68, by sorting throughthe user's possessions set 50.

A geofence is desirable to delineate regions and may also indicateborders. A geofence may be a simpler implementation of a border and maybe used in place of a border. However, since a geofence is malleable inthe sense that it may change with time and objective to fit a particularsituation while a border is typically geographically fixed, a borderusually may not be used in place of a geofence. In the followingexplanation of the exemplary embodiment of a method, a geofence is usedbut it should be understood that where appropriate, a border may be usedin place of the geofence.

A geofence is a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area suchas a city, state or country. A geofence may be dynamically generated—asin a radius around a point location, or a geofence may be a predefinedset of boundaries such as school zones or neighborhood boundaries.Referring back to FIG. 1, there may be a geofence 17 that geographicallyencompasses the first entity 14 and another geofence 19 thatgeographically encompasses the second entity 16. Between the geofences17, 19 is border 12. In view of the explanation above of geofences andborders, border 12 may be viewed as a representation of a geofence wheregeofences 17 and 19 overlap. Geofences are useful because a user'smovements, as tracked by the GPS in the user's electronic device 44, canbe monitored with respect to the GPS coordinates of the points along thegeofence.

Referring back to FIG. 4, in one exemplary embodiment, a geofence mayalways be activated. In another exemplary embodiment, it may benecessary to activate the geofence, box 70. The geofence may beactivated, for example, by application 54 or application 54 incommunication with system 20.

A proximity zone is a measure of how close the user is to a boundary. Aproximity zone 18 is illustrated in FIG. 1. Proximity zone 18 is an areawithin the first entity 14 that is close to the border 12. Proximityzone 18 may alternatively be delineated by another geofence thatcircumscribes the proximity zone 18. In one exemplary embodiment, aproximity zone may always be activated. In another exemplary embodiment,it may be necessary to activate the proximity zone, box 72. Theproximity zone may be activated, for example, by application 54 orapplication 54 in communication with system 20. The user may have thecapability through application 54 to vary the size of the proximityzone, that is, the distance from the start of the proximity zone to theborder 12.

The user's GPS coordinates may be monitored by the application 54 andreported back to the system 20 such as to computing device 42. Thesystem 20 determines if the user is in the proximity zone, box 74. Ifthe user is not in the proximity zone, the “NO” path is followed toidentify the user's current location. If the user is in the proximityzone, the “YES” path is followed to determine if the user has any itemsthat are not permitted in the entity over the border that the user isapproaching, box 76.

If it is determined that the user is in possession of the not permitteditems and it is likely that the user may cross the border, the “YES”path is followed to have the application 54 send a responsive action,box 78. The system 20 may also monitor if the user is at the geofence,box 80. If the user is not at the geofence, the “NO” path is followed toidentify the user's current location, box 64.

Referring back to box 76, if it is determined that the user is not inpossession of any of the not permitted items, the “NO” path is followedto determine if the user is at the geofence, box 80, and the “NO” pathmay be followed to identify the user's current location, box 64, if theuser is not at the geofence. A responsive action 79 may also be providedto notify the user that the user is approaching the border representedby the geofence.

If it is determined that the user is at the geofence, box 80, the “YES”path is followed.

It again may be determined if the user is carrying any items that arenot permitted in the entity over the border. For example, the user mayhave purchased some additional items while in the proximity zone. If theuser does have such not permitted items and it is likely that the usermay cross the border, the “YES” path is followed to provide a responsiveaction 84. If the user does not have such not permitted items, the “NO”path is followed. Another responsive action 86 may be provided to theuser to notify the user that the user is at the border.

It then may be determined if the user has passed the geofence, box 88.If the user has not passed the geofence, the “NO” path is followed toidentify the user's current location, box 64. If the user has passed thegeofence, meaning the user has crossed the border into the next entity,the “YES” path is followed and the geofence may be deactivated, box 90,if necessary and the proximity zone may be deactivated, box 92, ifnecessary. The geofence and proximity zone may be deactivated, forexample, by application 54 or application 54 in communication withsystem 20.

In the method described with respect to FIG. 4, it may be possible thatwhile a user is in the proximity zone or at the border, the user mayhave no intention to actually cross the border. The user may also becarrying items not permitted in the entity on the other side of theborder. If there are no indicia, such as residence information, hotelreservations, calendar entries, emails, appointments, etc., indicatingthat the user is unlikely to cross the border, in one exemplaryembodiment, it may be assumed that when the user is within the proximityzone, the user is likely to cross the border. In other words, if theuser does not have a reason to be in the proximity zone, it is assumedthe user is likely to cross the border. If the system wrongly evaluatesthe user as likely to cross the border, such an evaluation may be afalse positive and any responsive action provided to the user may beunnecessary

In one exemplary embodiment, the false positives experienced by the usermay be mitigated by putting in a learning loop in system 20 that maysupplement the other indicia of the user's likely travel. As an example,if the user's purchase history and/or calendar shows that the user maycross a boundary that the user normally just gets close to, then theuser is alerted. However, if the system has learned that you get closeto a particular boundary frequently, then the user may not be warned,eliminating a false positive.

In another exemplary embodiment to mitigate false positives, the system20 may be designed so that the user is not registered for every possibleborder crossing that the user could possibly come across. The user mayselect through application 54 warning areas from a plurality ofavailable ones based on the user's personal desire to be warned.

In another exemplary embodiment to mitigate false positives, if the userhas gone a specific distance from when the user originally selectedwarning areas, the user may be asked again to select warning areas andthe user may be presented new warning areas and optionally highlightingwarning areas that are similar to ones the user may have previouslyselected.

It should be understood that FIG. 4 contains variations of the exemplaryembodiments and not all steps shown in FIG. 4 are in all exemplaryembodiments. Following are some preferred exemplary embodiments.

One exemplary embodiment pertains to a method. In the method apossessions data set is received as provided for in box 68 of FIG. 4.The possessions data set may be the possessions data illustrated in FIG.2. The possessions data set may be information indicating that a user isin possession of a first item having a first item type in a firstentity.

A data set is received including information that items of the firstitem type are considered as not permitted in a second entity. System 20through the not permitted items by entity database 28 may provide theinformation that items are not permitted in the second entity. As shownin FIG. 4, the items carried by user are determined if they are notpermitted in the second entity, box 76 and box 82.

An indication may be received that the user is likely to cross aboundary between the first entity and the second entity. FIG. 4illustrates that the user is monitored to determine if the user is inthe proximity zone, box 74, and/or at the geofence, box 80, and thuslikely to cross the boundary into the second entity. As describedpreviously, if there is no indicia indicating that the user has a reasonto be in the proximity zone or at the geofence, then it may be assumedthat the user is likely to cross the border.

Responsive to the indication that the user is likely to cross theboundary, sending, automatically and by machine logic, a notification toa device of the user over a communication network with the notificationincluding information, in human understandable form and format, that theitem type of the first item is considered as not permitted in the secondentity. While the user is in the proximity zone, box 74, a responsiveaction, box 78, may be sent to the user to indicate that the user hasnot permitted items. In addition, or instead of, the proximity zone, itmay be determined that the user is at the geofence, box 82, and aresponsive action, box 84, may be sent to the user to indicate that theuser has not permitted items.

One exemplary embodiment pertains to another method. In the method, aboundaries data set is received including data indicative of thegeographic locations of boundaries separating a plurality of differententities. The boundaries data set may be the borders database 26referenced in FIG. 2 which may be used to determine the proximity zone,box 74, and geofence, box 80, in FIG. 4.

A user location data set is received including data indicative of acurrent geographic location of a user. The location data set may be thecurrent location of the user as provided by the GPS in the user'selectronic device 44. The user location data set may be used to identifythe current location of the user, box 64.

It is determined, automatically and by machine logic that the user islikely to cross a boundary between a first entity, of the plurality ofentities, and a second entity, of the plurality of entities, based atleast in part upon proximity between the current geographic location ofthe user and a location of a boundary between the first entity and thesecond entity indicated in the boundaries data set. As illustrated inFIG. 4, it may be determined if the user is in the proximity zone, box74. As described previously, if there is no indicia indicating that theuser has a reason to be in the proximity zone, then it may be assumedthat the user is likely to cross the boundary.

Responsive to the determination that the user is likely to cross theboundary, taking, automatically and by machine logic, a responsiveaction. The responsive action may be the responsive action, box 79, orresponsive action, box 86, illustrated in FIG. 4.

One exemplary embodiment pertains to a further method. In the method, aboundaries data set is received including data indicative of thegeographic locations of boundaries separating a plurality of entities.The boundaries data set is the borders database 26 referenced in FIG. 2which may be used to determine the proximity zone, box 74, and geofence,box 80, in FIG. 4.

A user location data set is received including data indicative ofgeographic locations of a user as the user moves over time. The locationdata set may be the current location of the user as provided by the GPSin the user's electronic device 44. The user location data set may beused to identify the current location of the user, box 64.

It is determined, by machine logic, that the user is likely to cross aboundary between a first entity, of the plurality of entities, and asecond entity, of the plurality of entities, based at least in part uponthe boundaries data set and the user location data set. The system inFIG. 2 may use the borders database 26 and the current location 46 ofthe user to make the determination that the user is likely to cross theborder. As described previously, if there is no indicia indicating thatthe user has a reason to be in the proximity zone or at the boundary,then it may be assumed that the user is likely to cross the boundary.

Responsive to the determination that the user is likely to cross theboundary, taking, automatically and by machine logic, a responsiveaction. The responsive action may be the responsive action, box 79, orresponsive action, box 86, illustrated in FIG. 4.

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product at any possible technical detail level of integration.The computer program product may include a computer readable storagemedium (or media) having computer readable program instructions thereonfor causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, configuration data for integrated circuitry, oreither source code or object code written in any combination of one ormore programming languages, including an object oriented programminglanguage such as Smalltalk, C++, or the like, and procedural programminglanguages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programminglanguages. The computer readable program instructions may executeentirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as astand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partlyon a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. Inthe latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user'scomputer through any type of network, including a local area network(LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to anexternal computer (for example, through the Internet using an InternetService Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including,for example, programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gatearrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays (PLA) may execute thecomputer readable program instructions by utilizing state information ofthe computer readable program instructions to personalize the electroniccircuitry, in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of theorder noted in the Figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art having regard to thisdisclosure that other modifications of the exemplary embodiments beyondthose embodiments specifically described here may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention. Accordingly, suchmodifications are considered within the scope of the invention aslimited solely by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: detecting a user's computingdevice, the user's computing device having an application to communicatewith a system that has digital data pertaining to the user such that atleast some of the digital data is associated with the user but not withthe user's computing device, the application drawing conclusions fromthis digital data as to items a user may be carrying; responsive todetecting the user's computing device: communicating by the applicationwith the system to draw conclusions about items in possession by theuser, the sum of the items in possession by the user being a possessionsdata set; receiving the possessions data set including informationindicating that the user is in possession of a first item having a firstitem type in a first entity wherein the user's computing device is notthe first item; receiving a data set including information that items ofthe first item type are considered as not permitted in a second entity;receiving an indication that the user is likely to cross a boundarybetween the first entity and the second entity; and responsive to theindication that the user is likely to cross the boundary, sending,automatically and by machine logic, a notification to a device of theuser over a communication network with the notification includinginformation, in human understandable form and format, that the item typeof the first item is considered as not permitted in the second entity.2. The method of claim 1 wherein the possessions data set comprisesdigital information on a user's electronic device.
 3. The method ofclaim 2 wherein the possessions data further comprises digitized dataand digitized audio associated with the user.
 4. The method of claim 1wherein the first entity and the second entity are legal jurisdictionsand the boundary is a physical, political or legal border.
 5. The methodof claim 1 further comprising defining a proximity zone proximate to theboundary by a geofence where the geofence is a virtual perimeter for theproximity zone and wherein receiving an indication that the user islikely to cross the boundary comprises entering the proximity zoneproximate to the boundary.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the data setincluding information that items of the first item type are consideredas not permitted in a second entity is a legal data set comprising laws,rules and policies.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein one of the firstand second entities is a business and the data set including informationthat items of the first item type are considered as not permitted in thesecond entity is a policy data set comprising policies pertaining to theat least one of the first and second entities.
 8. The method of claim 7wherein the boundary is a logical boundary.
 9. The method of claim 1further comprising receiving a boundaries data set including dataindicative of the geographic locations of boundaries separating aplurality of different entities including the boundary between the firstentity and the second entity; and wherein receiving an indication thatthe user is likely to cross the boundary between the first entity andthe second entity is based at least in part upon the location of theboundary in the boundaries data set.
 10. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising receiving a boundaries data set including data indicative ofthe geographic locations of boundaries separating a plurality ofdifferent entities including the boundary between the first entity andthe second entity; and receiving a user location data set including dataindicative of geographic locations of the user as the user moves overtime; and wherein determining that the user is likely to cross theboundary between the first entity and the second entity is based atleast in part upon the location of the boundary in the boundaries dataset and the user location data set.
 11. A method comprising: detecting auser's computing device, the user's computing device having anapplication to communicate with a system that has digital datapertaining to the user such that at least some of the digital data isassociated with the user but not with the user's computing device, theapplication drawing conclusions from this digital data as to items inpossession by the user; responsive to detecting the user's computingdevice: communicating by the application with the system to drawconclusions about items in possession by the user, such items inpossession by the user not including the user's computing device;receiving a boundaries data set including data indicative of thegeographic locations of boundaries separating a plurality of differententities; receiving a user location data set including data indicativeof a current geographic location of a user; defining a proximity zoneproximate to the boundary by a geofence where the geofence is a virtualperimeter for the proximity zone determining, automatically and bymachine logic that the user is likely to cross a boundary between afirst entity, of the plurality of entities, and a second entity, of theplurality of entities, based at least in part upon proximity between thecurrent geographic location of the user and a location of a boundarybetween the first entity and the second entity indicated in theboundaries data set, wherein the proximity between the currentgeographic location of the user and the location of the boundary is theproximity zone proximate to the boundary; and responsive to thedetermination that the user is likely to cross the boundary, notifyingto the user's computing device, automatically and by machine logic, thatthe user has items in possession by the user permitted in the firstentity but not permitted in the second entity.
 12. The method of claim11 wherein the first entity and the second entity are legaljurisdictions and the boundary is a physical, political or legal border.13. The method of claim 11 wherein one of the first and second entitiesis a business and the boundary is a physical, legal or logical borderbetween the business and the other of the first and second entities. 14.The method of claim 11 wherein the responsive action is a notificationto a device of the user over a communication network with thenotification including information, in human understandable form andformat, that the user is likely to cross the boundary.
 15. A methodcomprising: detecting a user's computing device, the user's computingdevice having an application to communicate with a system that hasdigital data pertaining to the user such that at least some of thedigital data is associated with the user but not with the user'scomputing device, the application drawing conclusions from this digitaldata as to items in possession by the user; responsive to detecting theuser's computing device: communicating by the application with thesystem to draw conclusions about items in possession by the user, suchitems in possession by the user not including the user's computingdevice; receiving a boundaries data set including data indicative of thegeographic locations of boundaries separating a plurality of entities;receiving a user location data set including data indicative ofgeographic locations of a user as the user moves over time; defining aproximity zone proximate to the boundary by a geofence where thegeofence is a virtual perimeter for the proximity zone determining, bymachine logic, that the user is likely to cross a boundary between afirst entity, of the plurality of entities, and a second entity, of theplurality of entities, based at least in part upon the boundaries dataset and the user location data set, wherein determining that the user islikely to cross the boundary comprises entering the proximity zoneproximate to the boundary; and responsive to the determination that theuser is likely to cross the boundary, notifying to the user's computingdevice, automatically and by machine logic, that the user has items inpossession by the user permitted in the first entity but not permittedin the second entity.
 16. The method of claim 15 wherein the firstentity and the second entity are legal jurisdictions and the boundary isa physical, political or legal border.
 17. The method of claim 15wherein one of the first and second entities is a business and theboundary is a physical, legal or logical border between the business andthe other of the first and second entities.
 18. The method of claim 15wherein the responsive action is a notification to a device of the userover a communication network with the notification includinginformation, in human understandable form and format, that the user islikely to cross the boundary.